WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Clarice Season 1, Episode 1, "The Silence Is Over."
CBS' Clarice brings Agent Starling (Rebecca Breeds) back into the limelight, acting as a direct sequel to the 1991 psychological thriller, The Silence of the Lambs. Here, she's suffering heavy PTSD after chasing down Buffalo Bill, scarred by him skinning and killing so many of his victims -- something her rookie mind wasn't prepared for at the time.
However, as much as she's traumatized by her bloody baptism of fire with Buffalo Bill, this serial killer isn't the biggest ghost haunting her. It's the lone survivor, Catherine.
At the end of Silence, Clarice found Bill's home and shot the murderer dead. Luckily, she rescued Catherine from a dry well, but since then, something's been off with their relationship. Clarice has kept in touch with the families of those Bill killed, but she's cut Catherine off for some reason.
Former senator Ruth Martin, who's now the attorney general in 1993, brings Clarice in for a new case back home in Appalachia. Ruth also takes special interest in Clarice's relationship with Catherine, because Catherine is her daughter.
Ruth batted for Clarice years ago and now she wants Clarice to be the top agent hunting down serial killers, but she still has to get over their personal hurdle. While she trusts Clarice professionally, she's still hurt that the profiler is shunning Catherine. Flashbacks have shown Clarice is petrified, remembering Bill's attack on her, as well as the gruesome lab he kept to maim victims. Every knife, incision and piece of flesh is wrecking her mind, and flashbacks of Catherine in the well, screaming, all add to the grief.
The shocking thing is, when Ruth mentions that Catherine is depressed and losing weight drastically, Clarice still can't find the strength to call her. Catherine makes the move, though, disguising her number and calling the agent, chiding her for the abandonment.
Clarice is triggered by the call and has trouble catching her breath. Still, Catherine doesn't let up, blaming Clarice for her failing mental health. She basically deems Clarice just as bad as Bill and as the call abruptly ends, Clarice is left frantic and panicked.
She doesn't know when Catherine will call back, but she knows it isn't over. She's approaching a breaking point, which her colleagues are also realizing. Her therapy isn't going well, either, and seeing as it stopped so she could help Ruth look good in Washington, it's unclear how her healing and recovery will be affected. Clarice is afraid of the past and the public eye, especially the media, and the more she immerses herself in the new case of mothers being slaughtered, the worse it'll get -- especially with Catherine looming every time she closes her eyes.
Starring Rebecca Breeds, Michael Cudlitz, Kal Penn, Nick Sandow, Lucca De Oliveira, Devyn A. Tyler and Marnee Carpenter, Clarice airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.